It was Thursday evening and a weary Senate was deep in the throes of a debate on the mining tax. Coalition MP Ian Macdonald was giving his speech in support of the repeal, dressed in a lurid orange miner's shirt, which had been embossed with his name and kindly provided by Australians for Coal.
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''I contribute to this debate proudly in solidarity with the thousands of men and women of Australia who work in Australia's mining industries,'' Macdonald began, before launching into a spiel about the importance of the ''mining industry generally''.
As the Queensland senator was expanding on the ''hypocrisy'' of Labor and the Greens, Scott Ludlam strolled around to the largely-empty government side of the chamber. He then sat down behind Macdonald and held up a handwritten sign that read: ''SRSLY!''
(It didn't take long for Cory Bernardi – who was in the President's chair – to call Ludlam to order.)
When later asked why he had been moved to use such a contraband prop in the Senate, Ludlam replied: ''The hi-vis is particularly inspiring.''
As farcical as Macdonald's outfit and Ludlam's silent interjection were, in many ways they are symbolic of the past two weeks.They have been a combination of bright shining distractions and general frustrations.
For one thing, the government ended the first fortnight of the new Senate just as it had begun it – by losing a vote.
Monday week ago, it failed to secure the support of the PUP block to streamline the carbon tax debate. It seemed like an embarrassing blip at the time, but it was the start of a trend.
On Friday, the Coalition failed to convince the Senate not to amend its Asset Recycling Fund and then spectacularly failed to secure the crossbench vote to get the mining tax repeal through. With a stand-off over what to do with some $10 billion of spending linked to the tax, the Minerals Resource Rent Tax will tax on, at least until Parliament resumes on August 26.
After the non-repeal, government senators left the chamber shocked and shattered ahead of the five-week winter break.
Indeed, the Coalition had set two clear legislative goals for these past two weeks: the repeal of the carbon tax and the repeal of the mining tax. Both had seemed like done deals before people assembled in Canberra on July 7.
And yet the carbon tax repeal – from a legislative point of view – was like pulling teeth from a hungry hippo. Ever since the government began to lose procedural votes on the Clean Energy Legislation last week, Parliament has been fixated on when – and how – the final vote would happen. Were Clive Palmer and his PUPs on board with the amendments to protect consumers? Were they OK with the guillotine for debate? Would they agree to the timing of the final vote?
It took more than 50 hours to get it through the Senate. Despite Tony Abbott and Greg Hunt's factum est victory jig on Thursday, the government was noticeably bruised by the experience. When the carbon tax finally took its last legislative breath, Coalition senators could manage barely more than a subdued ''hear, hear''.
There must also be some exhaustion at the thought that the climate debate itself is not factum est. As it stands, the numbers for the Coalition's Direct Action plan in the Senate look decidedly iffy. Similarly, there is a decided lack of support for the Plan A budget. It's not as though the government can cruise from here on in.
So at least, in political terms, the carbon tax repeal was a run on the board. Because the fact that Australia still has a mining tax is a concrete loss for the Abbott government – by its own metrics. It says something about the rambunctiousness of the Senate, but it also says something powerful about the Coalition's negotiating and organising skills.
Did it forget about the mining tax in the midst of the carbon tax fixation? Or did it think it could get its position through the Senate simply because that's what it had been promising the Australian people all along?
Palmer insisted more than a week ago that his party would not support cutting the Schoolkids Bonus, the low income super contribution and the income support bonus. So what happened on Friday afternoon in the Senate should not have come as a surprise.
Yes, the Coalition won the last election and it did so in convincing terms. But that is not going to be enough to convince the Senate to play nicely. Those in the upper house also were elected. And clearly don't give a hi-vis about making things easy for the government.
Surely the Coalition should have realised this by now. Srsly.
Judith Ireland is a Fairfax Media journalist
